the "no good Perl jobs"/"no good Perl programmers" myth

[Dominic Mitchell]

On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 02:56:47PM +0100, Peter Corlett wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 02:28:07PM +0100, Nicholas Clark wrote:
> > On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 02:03:51PM +0100, Peter Hickman wrote:
> [...]
> >> It's less easy than you think. Thats why we are turning into a Java shop
> >> :(
> 
> I note that the programming job advertised on your website says "we want a
> Java expert who's seen a Perl script once" so it strikes me as unlikely that
> you'll have a Perl expert apply.

Which I find spectacularly amusing given that once on the job, the
reverse is far more likely to apply.

Although thankfully, the last round of people we have recruited have
been very able and adaptable.

> > Also, if there aren't decent Perl programmers who want to make websites,
> > what stops said firms from recruiting smart programmers straight out of
> > university (who don't yet know what they want to do) and teaching them
> > Perl? I assume that with Java you can recruit your junior minions
> > pre-trained.
> 
> Because a lot of employers seem to believe that universities are there to
> provide pretrained staff. Hence they tend to migrate to Java, because that's
> what the universities use as a teaching language.

But it doesn't matter what you're taught at University, you'll have
forgotten it before long anyway.  :-)

-Dom